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Nazi Scheme to Fight a Guerrilla War After VE-Day | Nazi Plans for Guerrilla Warfare 1945 | Vergeltung 1945
1945, Collier's Magazine, World War Two

The Guerrilla War That Never Was
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

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During the Autumn of 1944, when the great momentum was with the Allies and the German Army was in rapid retreat, the SS newspaper Das Schwartz Korps declared that an Allied-occupied Germany would not be a placid land:


The Allied soldiers shall find no peace. Death will lurk behind every corner. They might establish a civilian administration, but its leaders would not live a month. Nobody could execute the enemy’s orders without digging his own grave. No judge could pronounce sentences dictated by the enemy without being crucified in his own window frame in the dead of night.


This article goes into great detail concerning how the SS intended to make good on these words.

VANITY FAIR Throws a Bobbed Hair Party (Vanity Fair, 1919)
1919, Flappers, Vanity Fair Hall of Fame

VANITY FAIR Throws a Bobbed Hair Party
(Vanity Fair, 1919)

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A smattering of cartoons depicting those sweet young things of yore who were partial to bathtub gin, short skirts and
short hair styles.


In 1919 you didn’t have to be plugged-in 24/7 to the youth scene in order to recognize that bobbed hair was where the fickle finger of fashion was pointing. Perhaps the editors of VANITY FAIR presumed that a bobbed hair party was the best social alternative that could have been offered six months after the 1919 passage of the 18th Amendment, which ushered in the Prohibition of alcohol throughout the United States.

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A Child of the Bund... (Collier's Magazine, 1941)
1941, American Fascism, Collier's Magazine

A Child of the Bund…
(Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

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Similar to the one other piece of W.W. II historic fiction posted on this site, this short story is remarkably brief and to the point. Published weeks before America committed itself to the war, this little ditty was penned by Pat Frank (born Harry Hart Frank: 1908 – 1964) who wished to convey the inherit dangers of allowing the Nazi-sympathizing German American Bund to operate unchecked in the land of the free and home of the brave.

A tight little story succinctly told: print it out and read it.


The other short story is called Nesei Homecoming.


Click here to read about the origins of Fascist thought…

A Hidden Nazi Army? (Quick Magazine, 1954)
1954, Aftermath (WWII), Quick Magazine

A Hidden Nazi Army?
(Quick Magazine, 1954)

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In the chaos and confusion of 1945 Berlin the whereabouts of Gestapo General Heinrich Müller was lost; many believe he had been killed or committed suicide. Another report had it that Müller had been captured with the Africa Korps by the British and subsequently made good his escape into Syria. In an issue of the Soviet newspaper Izvestia that appeared on newsstands at the end of July, 1950, it was reported that while residing in the Middle East he had converted to Islam, changed his name to Hanak Hassim Bey and was amassing an army of German veterans in order to march on Israel. The attached notice seems to be based on the Izvestia article.

Distrusting Germans was a common pastime for many people in the Twentieth Century; some thirty years earlier a similar article was published about this distrust.
Here is another article about escaped Nazis.


When a Nazi converted to Islam it was undoubtedly the work of Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Click here to read about him.

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1935 Spring Fashion Article | Men's Formalwear Summer Fashions 1935 | LA Fashion Review 1935
1930s Fashion, 1935, Rob Wagner's Script Magazine

Spring Fashions
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1935)

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Paulette, the fashion critic for the long-defunct Beverly Hills society rag, Rob Wagner’s Script, joyfully reported that color had at long-last come to liven-up the drab wardrobe for the Great American male:

The myriads of color, diversity of design and gamut of styles displayed in men’s shops are revolutionary…The new page in fashion history began when daring members of the nations’ social elite first braved formal dinners in suits showing decided sheens of blue and red.

Early History of Advertising in the United States
1936, Advertising, Our Times

‘Art Finds A Patron”
(Our Times, 1936)

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[As the 19th Century was coming to an end] salesmanship evolved a technique more refined than pulpit or platform oratory; advertising became more subtle in method, more concrete in results than any form of proselyting argument. The art which Milton put into selecting words which should make man think about God was excelled by the care with which American writers of advertisements assembled words designed to persuade man to consume more chewing gum. The man, or advertising agency, who wrote an effective selling slogan, such as ‘It Floats’, received far greater compensation than Milton for Paradise Lost.

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Ike Jacket History | Fashion Legacy of WW II | Ike Jacket Article
1944, Collier's Magazine, Fashion (WWII)

The Ike Jacket Goes Mainstream
(Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

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In their book about American soldiers in the war-torn Britain of W.W. II, Overpaid, Over-Sexed and Over Herestyle=border:none (1991), authors James Goodson and Norman Franks recall how thoroughly impressed Americans were with the standard issue British Army uniform. The Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, was no exception – he promptly ordered his tailor to suit him in a similar get-up. Other American generals followed in his path as did the cocky young pilots of the Army Air Corps – shortly there after the look soon spread to other branches of the Army. This 1944 article discusses the broad appeal of this jacket and that civilian fashion designers had begun manufacturing the Ike Jacket for the Home Front.

Black Tie, Please (Collier's Magazine, 1947)
1940s Men's Fashions, 1947, Collier's Magazine

Black Tie, Please
(Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

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One evening in 1947, Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of Esquire Magazine, realized that his magazine alone was not sufficient enough in circulation for passing the word along to his fellows that the rules for men’s evening wear were rapidly being rewritten; knowing full-well that Collier’s was one of the preeminent American magazines of its day, he no-doubt must have pleaded the urgency of his case to their editors and, in so doing, saved the collective faces of the homo Americanus once more! We’re delighted that he did so, because now you will have a more thorough understanding as to how you might have dressed had you lived in post-war America.

Why Half Our Combat Soldiers Fail To Shoot Colliers Magazine 1952 | U.S. Army General S.L.A. Marshall Study On Infantry Firepower 1952
1952, Collier's Magazine, The Korean War

Why Only Half Our Soldiers Fire Their Rifles
(Collier’s Magazine, 1952)

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In every engagement with the enemy during the Second World War, only 12 to 25 percent of American riflemen ever fired their weapons. This was an enormous concern for the brass hats in the Pentagon and they got right to work in order to remedy the problem. Five years later, when the Korean War rolled around, they found that the situation was somewhat improved: 50% of the soldiers were now able to return fire. This article tells the story of U.S. Army General S.L.A. Marshall (1900 – 1977) and his research in addressing this issue. A good read.

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The Dos and Don't in Men's Suiting of the Forties (Pic Magazine, 1945)
1940s Men's Fashions, 1945, Pic Magazine

The Dos and Don’t in Men’s Suiting of the Forties
(Pic Magazine, 1945)

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This article appeared in an issue Click Magazine that was deliberately edited to aid those young men who had been wearing uniforms for the past few years and, subsequently, had no knowledge whatever of tailoring or of fabric that was not government issued. It consists of a handy guide for the aspiring dandy showing just how a gentleman’s suit should fit if it is to be properly worn.


Read an article about the history of Brooks Brothers

Preparing for War with Motorcycles (Literary Digest, 1937)
1937, Prelude (WW II), The Literary Digest

Preparing for War with Motorcycles
(Literary Digest, 1937)

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A short news piece from The Literary Digest reported on an investment that the Nazi forces were making to insure a lightening-fast attack:

Motorcycles, a cool million of them, have become a German army specialty. The new Wehrmacht specializes in them. (it knows it will be short of horses; as when in March, 1918, the Teuton cavalry arm was virtually abolished, west front and east.) The British and French have only half a million machines apiece.


Read about the mechanics of W.W. II German motorcycles…

Young Frank Sinatra (Yank Magazine, 1945)
1945, Interviews: 1912 - 1960, Yank Magazine

Young Frank Sinatra
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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Nobody has been able to figure out to anyone’s satisfaction why Sinatra has the effect he has on his Bobby Sox fans. One of his secretaries, a cute dish whose husband is serving overseas, said: ‘The doctors say it’s just because he’s got a very sexy voice, but I’ve been with him a year now and his voice doesn’t do a thing to me’.


Maybe it’s the war.

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One of the First Katherine Hepburn Interviews (Collier's Magazine, 1933)
1933, Collier's Magazine, Hollywood History

One of the First Katherine Hepburn Interviews
(Collier’s Magazine, 1933)

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It was 1933 interviews like this one that made the studio executives at RKO go absolutely bonkers; what were they to do with Katharine Hepburn (1907 – 2003)? She simply refused to take all matters Hollywood with any degree of seriousness; although she hadn’t been a movie actress for very long at all, Katherine Hepburn was downright impious and goofy when reporter’s questions were put to her:

‘Is it true that you have three children?’ asked the interviewer.

‘I think it’s six,’ she answered.

Such responses served only to frustrate the members of the fourth estate to such a high degree and it seemed only natural that the fan magazine journalists would want to have the final word as to who Katherine Hepburn really was…


-But the Hollywood press did like her future co-star Carry Grant, click here to read it.

The Red Caps (Ken Magazine, 1938)
1938, African-American History, Ken Magazine

The Red Caps
(Ken Magazine, 1938)

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The history of the African American baggage handlers called Red Caps is a sad story in American social history. The Red Caps had been around since the 1890s and they were assigned the task of carrying luggage to and from trains and taxis; this article points out that in the Thirties, one of every three of them had a college degree:

Red Caps did not go to college to learn how to be Red Caps. Their problem is a racial one. To the white, a job toting luggage is a poor way to eke out an existence. To the black, red capping is one of the ‘big’ fields open. The white man who works as a porter can do nothing else, as a rule; the Negro almost invariably can do something else but can’t get it to do.


Dorie Miller was an African-American hero during the Second World War, click here if you would like to read about him.

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